The BBC Microcomputer Page

The History of the BBC Micro In
T&T

The BBC Micro or "Beeb" as it was commonly known was the result of
efforts by the British Broadcasting Corp to provide computer literacy
and access to as many people in the United Kingdom as humanly
possible. For a more in depth look at the development of the BBC
Micro go to David Schmit's home page:
The BBC Lives!

I have decided to write a short historical essay of my own for our
own Beeb. This compliments and expands on what I wrote in my
background page. I hope you
find this interesting.

Special thanks to Dr Barnes and my dad,
Boyd Reid, for assisting me with this web project.

NOTE: This page is still UNDER
CONSTRUCTION.

The following text is still sketchy and incomplete. .
.proceed with CAUTION

The BBC Microcomputer Users Group. BBCMUG

"No Constitution/No Membership fees"

On Wednesday 4th April 1985 the first meeting of the
official BBCMUG was called to order. The flyer advertising
this meeting touted these two statements at the bottom in
bold type (all printed on a BBC using a dotmatrix printer).
The flyer invited all BBC users to come and share their
knowledge and expertise of the BBC or just to pick up any
useful information that they needed. The meeting was held in
MCA's own office in Port of Spain and there were no problems
that were revealed in the groups first quarterly newsletter.
Volume one Number one of the Newsletter was printed in July.
This newsletter became the most important part of the
BBCMUG'S endeavors and was published religiously and without
fail up until 1990.

By 1984 'eventually more than 1 million BBC micros are
sold. . .' and in Trinidad a good many are sold by MCA.
Since England and Acorn were across the Atlantic it was
difficult to get first hand support and in 1985 Trinidad and
Tobago's communications industry was still very much in its
infancy. Therefore BBCmicro users relied heavily on the
intermediaries, in this case Deryk Faria and MCA. However
MCA was unable to actually teach a user how to use the
BBCmicro and so it became important to form a group to
provide first hand support for each other. The actual idea
for a user group did not arise from one person but seemed to
be a common agreement between a few individuals. The
creation of the BBCMUG can be credited to a select few: Mr
Roger Barnes, Mr Russell Cunha and Mr Gilbert Boyd Reid. Mr
Faria became the unofficial representative of the agent on
this informal executive group.

During his career as chaplain of the University of the
West Indies in St. Augustine, in the early 70s, Mr Reid met
Mr Barnes during a series of University seminars for
lecturers and it was during informal moments at these
meetings that they discovered a mutual interest in computer
technology. The University had already had a digital
computer since 1966 and run programming courses for staff
and students but actual training in Computer Science was
still a long way off. Both Mr Barnes and Mr Reid purchased
BBC micros for basically the same thing. They wanted further
to explore computer programming and were interested in
keeping up with the developments of the new information
technology. Mr Barnes had been a user and programmer of the
University computer - an IBM 1620 - since 1966, and had
bought his first home microcomputer, a Radio Shack TRS80, in
1979. His first BBC micro was bought in England on
sabbatical leave in 1983. He became a user of the BBC
because he felt it would help him in his research and
teaching at the University Faculty of Agriculture. In a
recent email message he responded to my question by saying
"I used the BBC for a number of reasons the first was to
extend my knowledge of programming (not only Basic). 2. to
carry out a number of investigations into mapping and
statistics. . ." He developed "Several statistical
demonstration routines for the Biostatistics course in
Advanced Botany; Several genetics demonstration routines for
the Pre-Agriculture genetics course; Suite of graphics
demonstration programs for the Computer Science elective in
Agriculture; 15-minute demonstration of raster and vector
graphics with Caribbean examples (Land Surveying GIS
seminars, 16th December 1988). Map-drawing and editing
system for the Caribbean islands. . ." and a host of others
including 3D mapping, a graphical working model of a
programmable 4-bit computer with a 16 byte memory. a numeric
input pad and a 1 byte VDU screen, a multi-column printing
program for the MX-80 printer that printed text in 2 - 5
columns. "This was the first program," he continues "I wrote
a recursive routine for...it just seemed to fit!"

Mr Reid had his own various programming endeavours. One
that was demonstrated at an early meeting of the BEEMUG was
his "Dump memory to screen" command and a "Form marks
calculator". However by 1987 he was spending most of his
time developing an elaborate program (code-named Schooltime)
to help formulate timetables for secondary schools. An early
precursor to Schooltime was a simple mark sheet for students
(?). However part of his reason for purchasing the computer
was to help impart knowledge of information technology to
his sons, in response to his recognition - mentioned in the
BBC's education investigation "The Mighty Micro" that the
key to the widespread use of computer technology lay in the
hands of the next generation.

Therefore these two men formed the core for the BBCMUG
from its inception. Other important members were Euric
Jardim, a mathematics teacher from the all girls Holy Name
convent and Jason Arneaud who was recognised for his work in
BASIC programming at the age of fifteen. These members
assisted the MUG in continuing throughout the years of its
existence.